GOP reps spar with Oversight Dems at border hearing over ‘white nationalist’ claim

Republicans on the House Oversight Committee took aim at a tweet put out by their Democratic counterparts which accused them of fueling "white nationalist conspiracy theories" with a hearing on security at the southern border.

Chairman James Comer highlighted the tweet at the opening of the hearing, which features Border Patrol agents and is on "the front lines of the border crisis."

Oversight Committee Democrats had tweeted a "good morning and good luck" to everyone except Republican members "who are using today's hearing to amplify white nationalist conspiracy theories instead of a comprehensive solution to protect our borders and strengthen our immigration system."

Comer called the tweet "disturbing" and warned that the tweet violates House rules.

DHS SECRETARY MAYORKAS HIT WITH NEW IMPEACHMENT PUSH OVER ‘RECKLESS ABANDONMENT’ OF BORDER SECURITY 

"While vigorous disagreement is part of the legislative process. Members are reminded that we must adhere to established standards of decorum and debate," he said.

"It's a violation of House rules and the rules of this committee to engage in personalities regarding other members or to question the motives of a colleague. So remarks of the type that we just saw in the tweet are not permitted by the rules and are not in keeping with the best traditions of our committee," he said.

Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., then weighed in with his opposition to the tweet in question.

BIDEN ADMIN KEEPS PUSHING SWEEPING IMMIGRATION BILL, INCLUDING AMNESTY, TWO YEARS INTO MIGRANT CRISIS

"My colleagues on the other side of the aisle who want to state that we're using this hearing for white nationalism," he said. "I'm not doing that." 

HIGH SPEED PURSUIT OF 12-YEAR-OLD, 15-YEAR-OLD MIGRANT SMUGGLERS ENDS IN SHOCKING CAR CRASH 

He continued: "So if you feel that strongly come to this side of the room and let's talk about it face to face, only that kind of silly stuff for somebody else. Don't bring that here today. This stuff is serious."

The hearing on the crisis at the border, which saw more than 2.3 million migrant encounters in FY 2022 and more than 251,000 in December alone, features two Border Patrol Chief Patrol Agents.

Chief Patrol Agent John Modlin leads the agency in the Tucson Sector, while Chief Patrol Agent Gloria Chavez runs the agency in Rio Grande Valley.

It is one of a number of hearings held or being planned by Republicans in the House. Republicans have sought to pin the blame for the crisis on the policies of the Biden administration. Democrats and the White House have accused Republicans of blocking an immigration reform plan that they say would overhaul a "broken" system. Republicans balked at the plan due to the inclusion of a mass amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants already in the country.

DHS Secretary Mayorkas has violated oath of office, must be impeached, Heritage Foundation argues

EXCLUSIVE: Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas has violated his oath of office and must be impeached, according to a new report first seen by Fox News Digital.

The Heritage Foundation, a prominent conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C., released the blistering assessment of Mayorkas' tenure as Republican lawmakers introduce articles of impeachment for him and investigate his handling of the nation's borders.

According to the report's authors — Lora Ries, Steven Bradbury and Hans von Spakovsky — such actions from Congress are exactly what should happen.

"By his policy decisions and misconduct as secretary of homeland security, [Mayorkas] has violated his oath of office, abused the powers of his office, and betrayed the trust of the American people," the report states. "As a direct result of his actions, the U.S. has become gripped by an unprecedented border, national security, and illegal immigration catastrophe."

DHS SECRETARY MAYORKAS HIT WITH NEW IMPEACHMENT ARTICLE OVER 'RECKLESS ABANDONMENT' OF BORDER SECURITY

"For these violations, abuses, depredations, and betrayals," the paper continues, "Secretary Mayorkas deserves to be impeached, removed from office, and disqualified from holding any further office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States."

It has been more than a century since a cabinet secretary has been impeached. However, Heritage argues that precedent should be broken because Mayorkas is, they claim:

"I don't think we've ever had until now a cabinet official in charge of a major department come in and say I can waive requirements of the law and actually direct my personnel to violate laws they're supposed to be enforcing," von Spakovsky told Fox News Digital. "Mayorkas is responsible for some of the most outrageous conduct we've ever seen by a cabinet official. That kind of behavior warrants impeachment."

OUR COUNTRY 'CANNOT GO ANOTHER TWO YEARS' WITH SECRETARY MAYORKAS IN CHARGE OF THE BORDER: REP. BIGGS

The report shines a spotlight on the ongoing crisis at the nation's southern border. Since Mayorkas took the helm at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), there has been a sharp rise in the number of people who have crossed the southern border illegally. The figure reached a record 2.38 million illegal crossings encountered by U.S. authorities in fiscal year 2022 (which ended Sept. 30) and a record 251,487 just in December, the latest month for which data's available, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. There has been over 200,000 such migrant encounters for 10 months straight.

"Mayorkas doesn't think anyone should be denied entry," said von Spakovsky. "He believes his job is to bring as many aliens into the country as he can, no matter what federal immigration law requires him to do."

In May, Fox News host Bret Baier asked Mayorkas in an interview whether it was "the objective of the Biden administration to reduce, sharply reduce the total number of illegal immigrants coming across the southern border."

Mayorkas responded, "It is the objective of the Biden administration to make sure that we have safe, orderly, and legal pathways for individuals to be able to access our legal system."

The Heritage report details how Mayorkas has "violated" the law by directing DHS to "mass-parole" illegal immigrants into the U.S. when federal law says migrants seeking entry into the U.S. should be granted parole temporarily and "only on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit."

TEXAS LEADS 20 REPUBLICAN STATES IN SUING BIDEN ADMIN OVER MIGRANT PAROLE PROGRAM

Mayorkas "refers to most migrants as asylum seekers, but he has the data and knows most people here aren't genuine asylum seekers," Ries told Fox News Digital. "He's encouraging asylum fraud."

Under U.S. law, in order to receive asylum, individuals leaving their own country are supposed to show past persecution or well-founded fear of future persecution based on their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. However, the Heritage authors argue that, with the encouragement of Mayorkas' words and policies, the system is being exploited by millions of economic migrants who may be fleeing hardship but do not meet the bar of asylum.

Soaring asylum cases have led to a record years-long backlog in U.S. immigration courts.

Due to an overwhelming number of illegal immigrants entering the country, well over 50% of agents are often pulled off guarding the 1,954-mile U.S.-Mexico border to process, care for, and transfer migrants, leaving huge gaps for cartels and smugglers to exploit, according to former top border security officials.

The result, Heritage warns, is a national security threat and humanitarian crisis.

Under Mayorkas, about 1.2 million illegal immigrant "gotaways" are known to have evaded U.S. authorities, according to border agents. Experts are especially concerned about this group since Border Patrol encountered 98 migrants on the Terrorist Screening Dataset between the legal ports of entry in fiscal year 2022. The first three months of fiscal year 2023 have already encountered 38. By comparison, the figures were 16 and three for fiscal years 2021 and 2020, respectively.

NEARLY 300,000 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS SLIPPED PAST BORDER AGENTS IN LESS THAN FOUR MONTHS: SOURCES

Beyond security, Heritage outlines how Mexican cartels have used the border crisis to push drugs and human trafficking operations into the U.S., noting the victims are often children and young adults.

Last month, in a highly public case, an illegal immigrant was charged in the rape and murder of a 20-year-old with autism.

The Heritage report argues such outcomes are the results of purposeful policy decisions by Mayorkas that are often in contravention to written law.

"He's ignored laws, outright violated laws, lied, subjected his own officers and employees to grave danger — it absolutely merits impeachment," said Ries. "He's created threats to national security, public safety, and public health. And he's completely lost the trust of the American people."

An entire section of the report focuses on an alleged "betrayal of the public trust," listing several examples of Mayorkas telling Congress and the country that the border is secure despite the ongoing border crisis. 

The report also says Mayorkas "withheld" and misrepresented" information in several cases. Most notoriously, the DHS chief in 2021 promoted the narrative that border agents on horseback were whipping Haitian migrants trying to enter the U.S. after being told that no whipping took place

MAYORKAS ALERTED THAT NO HAITIAN MIGRANTS WERE ‘WHIPPED’ HOURS BEFORE WH PRESS CONFERENCE

"The administration didn't want bad optics, so they came up with this bogus story," said Ries. "Mayorkas has yet to apologize for lying. It created incredible damage for his own employees."

Fox News Digital reached out to the Department of Homeland Security seeking comment for this story.

"Secretary Mayorkas is proud to advance the noble mission of this department, support its extraordinary workforce, and serve the American people," a DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital. "The department will continue our work to enforce our laws and secure our border, while building a safe, orderly, and humane immigration system."

The spokesperson also referred Fox News Digital to a recent DHS press release, touting how illegal border crossings between ports of entry have dropped since President Biden last month announced "additional border enforcement measures to limit illegal immigration." 

According to Ries, however, the changes were a "shell game" not reducing the numbers but shifting them from Border Patrol agents between ports of entry to officials at the ports.

Critics have argued the efforts to impeach Mayorkas is politically motivated and not constitutionally sound, claiming it is based on accusations of dereliction of duty to target political opponents rather than the legal threshold of "high crimes and misdemeanors" described in the Constitution.

"The Republicans who support his impeachment know full well that they cannot succeed in removing him by a two-thirds Senate vote. But they still want to impeach him, in order to highlight the alleged failures of this administration in controlling the southern border," legal expert Alan Dershowitz wrote in a New York Daily News op-ed over the weekend. "They may have enough Republican votes to achieve this unconstitutional political goal, despite the fact that some Republican moderates seem unwilling to go along with this charade … Both parties are willing to weaponize the constitutional criteria for impeachment in order to achieve political benefits."

MARYLAND MOM CALLS FOR MAXIMUM SENTENCE FOR TEEN MS-13 GANG MEMBER CHARGED WITH DAUGHTER'S MURDER

When asked to respond to such claims, von Spakovsky argued the case against Mayorkas has nothing to do with politics.

"You can't impeach someone because of policy differences — that's political and not grounds for impeachment," he said. "You impeach someone for breaking their oath of office to enforce the laws for which their department is responsible. No one can in any way deny that Mayorkas has been blatantly violating immigration law."

"They can claim it's political," he continued. "But I think we make a very careful case. It's Mayorkas' job to enforce the laws whether he likes them or not."

The report notes various authorities that have deemed failure to carry out the duties of one's office and "behaving in a manner grossly incompatible with the proper functions and purpose of the office" as constitutional grounds for impeachment, among others.

Heritage's report came after Republican lawmakers last week filed a second resolution in less than a month that would impeach Mayorkas.

Despite such efforts, however, at least one Heritage author sees the GOP actually going soft on securing the border now that the midterm elections are over and doesn't want Mayorkas to slide as a result.

"We wanted to explain why this is warranted for Mayorkas to be impeached — to remind people of the lies he's told, the laws he's violated, and the damage he's caused to the country and will continue to be caused if he remains secretary," Ries told Fox News Digital.

‘Border-free Biden:’ Republicans connect China spy balloon fiasco to migrant crisis at southern border

The incursion of a Chinese surveillance balloon into U.S. territory this week has led some Republicans to make a connection between the breaching of U.S. territory by the Chinese craft — and what they see as a lackluster response by the Biden administration — and the ongoing migrant crisis at the southern border.

"First Biden refused to defend our borders. Now he won’t defend our skies," House Speaker Kevin McCarthy tweeted Saturday.

The craft was hovering at an altitude of approximately 60,000 feet, according to the Pentagon, and was seen flying over Montana on Thursday, before changing course and heading over Missouri and being seen above North Carolina Saturday morning. The presence of the craft has caused a major diplomatic incident between the U.S. and China, which has asserted that it is not a spy balloon, but a civilian craft that went adrift.

"Regarding the unintended entry of a Chinese unmanned airship into US airspace due to force majeure, the Chinese side has verified it and communicated it to the US side. It is a civilian airship used for research, mainly meteorological, purposes," said a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Saturday. "Affected by the Westerlies and with limited self-steering capability, the airship deviated far from its planned course."

CHINESE SPY BALLOON: REPUBLICAN DEMANDS FOR BIDEN TO COUNTER CCP ‘PROVOCATION’ ESCALATE

It’s a narrative that has been firmly rejected by U.S. officials, who have described the incursion as "intentional." Secretary of State Antony Blinken has canceled a planned visit to Beijing over the incident.

Republicans have been hammering the administration over the incident, demanding the balloon be shot down — something the administration has not yet done due to the potential risk of civilian injury and collateral damage. Top Republicans have also called for hearings on the matter, with senators accusing Biden of a passive response.

But as the balloon continues to float across the continental U.S. unopposed, some Republicans made the connection with the ongoing migrant crisis at the southern border, where there have been millions of illegal migrant crossings since Biden took office.

The Biden administration has blamed congressional inaction to fix a "broken" immigration system and a hemisphere-wide crisis for the ongoing situation at the border. It has also pointed to ongoing anti-smuggling efforts and new border measures that it says have led to a drop in migrant crossings. But Republicans have blamed the administration’s policies for the surge in migrants under its watch, and have accused officials of failing to act.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has been a vocal critic of the administration’s handling of the critic, called Biden’s "refusal" to stop the balloon a "dereliction of duty."

"From flying balloons to open borders, Biden has no regard for our national security and sovereignty," he said.

Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., accused Biden of giving up U.S. sovereignty.

SUSPECTED CHINESE SPY BALLOON COULD END UP OVER THE CAROLINAS LATER THIS WEEKEND IF BIDEN FAILS TO TAKE ACTION

"As President Trump says, without borders, we are not a country. By allowing China to send spy balloons across our airspace & allowing 5 million foreign nationals to illegally cross our southern border, Joe Biden is surrendering our sovereignty as a nation. Biden is America Last!" she said.

Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., said the administration has "failed to protect our border and now has failed to protect our skies."

"Border-free Biden: from Chinese spy balloons to illegal immigration, why won’t the @POTUS uphold America’s borders?" Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., tweeted Friday evening.

Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., who is co-chair of the House Border Security Caucus, accused the administration of "attacking the geographic integrity of this nation by facilitating the historic invasion at our southern border and allowing a CCP military balloon to fly over critical national security locations."

MAYORKAS HIT WITH NEW IMPEACHMENT ARTICLE OVER ‘RECKLESS’ ABANDONMENT' OF SOUTHERN BORDER 

"A nation that cannot control its borders is not a nation," he said.

Meanwhile, the Border Patrol union also took a dig at the administration over its handling of the border crisis.

"China watching our border more closely than the Biden admin."

A White House official on Friday said that Biden administration officials briefed the Gang of Eight staff on Thursday afternoon and offered additional congressional briefings, which likely will take place next week.

Officials said that Biden made his decision not to shoot down the balloon based on a "strong recommendation" from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley and the commander of Northern Command "not to take kinetic action at this time because of risk to safety and security of the people on the ground."

"The president will always put the safety and security of the American people first," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. "We are tracking closely and keeping all options on the table." 

Fox News' Brooke Singman and Timothy Nerozzi contributed to this report.
 

High-speed pursuit of 12-year-old, 15-year-old migrant smugglers ends in shocking car crash

FIRST ON FOX: Two boys, ages 15 and 12, wrecked their vehicle after vaulting onto a highway as they attempted to evade law enforcement while smuggling an illegal immigrant in Texas -- the latest shocking high-speed chase at the border involving human smuggling.

The incident took place on Wednesday in Frio County, when the 15-year-old driver led Texas Department of Public Safety troopers on a high speed pursuit on IH-35.

With a 12-year-old passenger who authorities said was a runaway and also involved in the smuggling, the driver lost control of the vehicle due to the wet road conditions, hit an embankment, went airborne and hit IH-35.

Video obtained by Fox News shows the boys calling for help from the wreckage and officers smashing the windows to get them out. Authorities said that the illegal immigrant being smuggled was located in the vehicle with "incapacitating injuries" and transported to a hospital.

DHS SECRETARY MAYORKAS HIT WITH NEW IMPEACHMENT PUSH OVER ‘RECKLESS ABANDONMENT’ OF BORDER SECURITY 

The vehicle was stolen out of San Antonio, and the 15-year-old has been charged with evading arrest causing bodily injury, human smuggling causing bodily injury, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and drug possession.

Everybody survived. 

BIDEN ADMIN KEEPS PUSHING SWEEPING IMMIGRATION BILL, INCLUDING AMNESTY, TWO YEARS INTO MIGRANT CRISIS

The shocking video highlights the problem of human smuggling at the border, which can frequently involve cartels recruiting teens, including American citizens, on social media and elsewhere to smuggle illegal immigrants deeper into the U.S.

The arrest was made by Texas DPS, who have had their resources and presence increased in response to Texas’ Operation Lone Star -- launched by Gov. Greg Abbott in response to the ongoing migrant crisis at the border.

Last week, an officer stopped a vehicle carrying four illegal immigrants being smuggling into the U.S.

TEXAS DPS TROOPERS TURN IN 4 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS FOLLOWING CHASE INVOLVING CHILD

The driver, identified as Jose Maximo Viera, evaded the trooper through multiple cities, rural roads and dirt roads. During the pursuit, speeds reached 110 miles per hour. Viera reportedly lost control of the vehicle several times due to its speed and wet road conditions.

Viera and the passengers bailed out of the car and ran toward the brush, where troopers located them. Along with Viera, troopers located two men, one woman and a 2-year-old boy from El Salvador hiding in the brush.

There were 251,000 migrant encounters in December alone. Meanwhile, there have so far been over 300,000 "gotaways" – illegal immigrants who have evaded Border Patrol – this fiscal year so far, sources told Fox News this week.

Fox News’ Pilar Arias and Griff Jenkins contributed to this report. 

DHS Secretary Mayorkas hit with new impeachment article over ‘reckless abandonment’ of border security

Rep. Andy Biggs on Wednesday introduced articles of impeachment against embattled DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, amid a continued crisis at the southern border.

Border Patrol union says agents could back Mayorkas impeachment as crisis rages

A Border Patrol Union official says that agents would likely support the impeachment of DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas due to the ongoing situation at the southern border.

Mayorkas claims border encounters have dropped ‘significantly’ as he faces investigation, possible impeachment

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says border encounters "dropped significantly" since the agency announced new border actions, but he didn't provide details to support the claim.

Senate Republicans, stuck in minority, frown on House GOP calls for impeachment against Biden, Mayorkas

Senate Republicans are dismissive of a House GOP-led effort to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, being mindful that such an effort has no chance of success.

McCarthy calls on Mayorkas to resign or potentially face impeachment inquiry: ‘Enough is enough’

House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy says Republicans plan will move to impeach Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas if he does not resign when Republicans take the House next year.

Mayorkas impeachment push likely to stall in narrowly-divided House, Democrat Senate

The Republican push to impeach Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas faces obstacles with Congress divided between the GOP and Democrats.